**Trigger Warning** Title edited by MNHQ Very distressing news story about murder of 24 day old baby

[A580Hojas]

Aibu to not comprehend how it can be possible that newborn baby Stanley Davies, who had been in hospital on 3 occasions with broken ribs and limbs (if I am reading the reporting correctly) was sent back home with his parents and not removed from them by Social Services? I just cannot fathom how that could happen.

Someone is guilty of failing massively in their duty of care here (I refer to the professionals, not his parents). Unless any more knowledgeable Mumsnetters can explain to me how this might have happened?

Just utterly awful. Monstrous.

If you mean did I vote these muppets in. No I did not. I can tell you

I never understand why the parents or carers or whatever don't just give the child up for adoption.

Heartbreaking- I can't read it.

I’m 100% going to be made redundant in the next few years and have always been determined to retrain in SW. stories like this appall and terrify me.
So many friends in SW are giving 200% and children like this still slip through the net. It absolutely shouldn’t be happening in 2018.
May he rest in peace.

I suppose we only ever hear the awful stories about social services,not the good work that they do.

Have you the link to the story? Can't find it anywhere!

Apparently the consultant thought it was a birthmark hmm

My son has a Mongolian blue spot on his foot. The first few weeks after he was born there was querying by all professional whether it was a bruise or a birthmark.

I don’t know what to say. I’d bring back the death penalty for this piece of shit and her partner. They are inhuman.

social workers are under appreciated, under paid and over worked and often under trained. I speak from a well informed place.
They are often given cases in double figures that one person alone cannot manage and frequently no support. There are also a lot of people who want to be social workers to deal with some awful life experiences of their own - but as a result some of them aren’t robust enough to deal with the awful stress of it.

I've only read the BBC report, it said he had sustained fractures on 3 separate occasions not attended hospital. However he had a bruise misdiagnosed as a birthmark by a hospital consultant on one occasion (one too many but surprised at this, as how many bruise like birth marks are on the head..). Not defending/minimising in anyway, it is horrific.

The serious case review that is now going to happen will shed more light on what went wrong.

Please don’t lay blame at the voter’s door. The ONLY people who should hang their heads (and be hanged? In my opinion) are the two people who produced beautiful little Stanley.

Yes my DD had a Mongolian blue spot on her back - it did look like a bruise, it's possible the HV thought the bruise was this.

Easy to blame SW - but it was the mum/partner that did this and in an unbelievably short time span..

If you have voted for any governments who have cut care provision or funding for health or social services, you should point the finger at yourself

SO true.

If you have voted for any governments who have cut care provision or funding for health or social services, you should point the finger at yourself. And the funding goes down, while the caseload goes up.

This. Not saying all social workers are perfect obviously. But funding keeps being cut so their caseloads are far too big. And it must be incredibly hard to pick out the one genuinely abusive family from the fifty chaotic / shouty but basically okay families. Poor little baby though.

From my reading of it the bruise was diagnosed as a birth mark so I don't see how the social workers are culpable.

Awful awful case.

I actually can't read more about it. I read a lot about the Ellie Butler case and have never been able to forget it. That poor girl taken from her loving Grandparents and put in that hell hole.

I absolutely did not vote this government in. If you vote for cuts to services, things like this will happen.

I don’t believe he was taken to hospital, the injuries were found after his death.

I think honestly in this case there was so little time for SS to step in as it escalated so quickly. Stanley died at 24 days old after being in hospital for a week. So he was admitted at 17 days. That's a very short window for SS and other professionals had an extremely small window of opportunity to step in.
I do not blame SS for this, I blame the Mother and that man she shacked up with

Iirc Hampshire ss are in a bit of a mess just now.

These babies arnt always known to us. By us I mean ss. Referrals come from midwives, hospital staff and health visitors. Ss arnt psychic sadly

Oh God, I can't read it. Poor little mite.

Makes me so angry that this is happening time and time again. Why wasn't it picked up?

Can you really not fathom how it could happen? I agree completely it is an awful awful thing to happen to an innocent baby. What I hate is the blaming of the authorities dealing with it, before the full facts are known.

Do you really think it is easy to predict which child will actually be murdered? Can you tell which mother is just struggling to do her best in difficult circumstances, and which one is lying to cover up a violent partner? How do you see what is going on behind closed doors if you are not there to witness it? Until they start to issue crystal balls to social workers things like this will unfortunately continue to happen.

Like fatty says, the time span was so short, if the baby had been previously taken to hospital (which is still only speculation) it could well have been flagged to social services but before they looked into it it was too late. I can see how that could happen given the case load for som social services.

I haven't read one report that said he was even known to Social Services? Was he?

The people to blame are the people that did this to him.

I find it hard to believe how apparently “busy” social services are. they were all over me like flies on shit after a malicious referral that was proven to be false yet still wouldnt leave me alone.

Yet cases like this are ignored.

That beautiful baby boy. His photo is angelic.

I am glad that his suffering and agony was limited to 24 days. What kind of a world do I live in to be thinking like that? How do you get justice for that little baby?

I feel sick and angry just thinking of this case.